Switched supplier: Economy 7 smart meter not sending reads and IHD needs re-configuring?

Just thought I’d stop by real quick. SMETS1 and SMETS2 Smart Meters are not configured via a Config File. They use SMETS Commands instead that deliver each setting as a separate “message”, so to speak.

  Thanks. That looks about right. Mike could compare his with this:
  

  
The WNC bit is the communications hub. This one looks as if it has all the bells and whistles.
 

We can hope! 

Yes thats exactly the one I have too 👍

Quick update for anyone interested - I called OVO with the load test readings and they agreed that they can see the problem.

The have escalated it to their Smart Meter team to investigate which may take (🙄) 45 days!  Since then I’ve been contacted by email and asked to conduct another load test and again been told that it will be escalated.  

Doesn't seem like too much is happening with this right now, maybe giving customers correct bills isn't a priority?  Anyway, I’ll update further if this makes any progress.

Progress of sorts, I suppose.

Just going back a few days: @MikeMilf  was happy to confirm that his meter matched the one in my picture, which is an SGM 1411-B. Jessica OTOH reported that hers is an SGM 1416-B. 

There are several varieties of meter like this, so it’s important to be sure which one we’re talking about. One big difference is that some of them used for properties with electric (storage) heating have an extra conductor to supply the heating equipment - what Mike referred to as his off-peak circuits. This made me think that perhaps he, too, has an SGM 1416-B. The extra conductor is between the third and fourth from the left in the earlier screenshot, offset a bit towards the front of the meter.

If there is a separate off-peak circuit for heating, then there should be an indicator on the meter itself to show when this circuit is live. This should of course coincide (more or less*) with the off-peak hours as laid down in the meter configuration. So it might help if you (plural) could spot this indicator and see whether its state is what you’d expect. There should be two icons: one for the main circuit, which is closed all the time unless the power is off, and the other for the off-peak circuit, which should be open except in off-peak periods. This is what you’re looking for, in the bottom right-hand corner of the meter window:
  

There’s bags of detailed information about these meters in the technical manual. Most of it goes over my head, but it can really help when something’s not right. I got it safely and for free from here: Download Aclara SGM1400 Series User Manual | ManualsLib 

*  More-or-less, because there is a brief random delay to switching on heating circuits. This is because if every storage heater in town switched on at the stroke of midnight, say, the sudden increase in load might cause the substation to go into meltdown (well, blow a fuse, anyway).

Can confirm mine is definitely a 1416-B. 

it is a 5 pole with a dedicated off peak circuit. This circuit is switched as per the peak / off peak times as listed by OVO so it is actives correctly but the billing is using the inverse tariff (ie. Off peak is billed at peak rate and visa versa). 

This would lend support to the theory that the tariffs are referenced in the meter configuration or a similar issue - the meter doesn’t seem to be ‘faulty’ per se, just misconfigured in the linking of the tariffs. 

The return of Jessica makes me hopeful of Progress as does Firedog’s explanatory help.

However…….

Ive just taken a picture at 5am when it should be off peak (next change at 6am). The tariff is showing peak rate and the display bottom right is different to Jessica’s. My meter does appear to say its a SGM 1416-B the same as hers and from what I can see, the other exterior numbers are the same as hers

Will take another later when it should be peak rate - should I set it to show a different reading?

I think this confirms my meter is also set to the inverse of what it should be. Im not frothing at the mouth currently but as I said before, when the night storage heaters are needed, I think I will get hammered

Sorry about pic quality. Meter is in a dark cupboard and stupid phone flash wont co-operate lol

Panic over…..just taken another picture, and the bottom right of the display now has the same symbols as Jessica’s

No idea why the earlier one was different

This second picture was taken at 11am which should be a peak rate time (says so on the “Your Plan” page of my online account). Instead its being charged off-peak.

I think this confirms I have the same circumstances/issue as Jessica. I notified Ovo via a webform a while back that I believ there is a problem, so I know about the 45 day wait. Trouble is they dont give you a support ticket number, so following up could be…..interesting

Thanks, @MikeMilf  and @JessicaRose. It’s all becoming a bit clearer. While you’re grovelling in the meter cupboards and staring at impenetrable displays, there just seems to be one set of information missing to confirm that you’re both in the same boat, so to speak.

Jessica showed the screen while it was displaying the name of the rate the meter was using at the time: TOU Rate 2. Mike showed rather the price being charged. A few presses on the ‘A’ button should make it possible for you to correlate these two factors, which will of course be different when the off-peak circuit is live/dead. 

It doesn’t help that Aclara refers to ‘rate’ numbers when in other places we see terms like ‘tier’ and ‘register’ to tell us which counter is which. Mike’s prices, coupled with the indicators for active circuits, do seem to show that the meter thinks the lower price is for peak usage and vice versa. Whether DCC and OVO agree with this or not hasn’t yet come to light, but it seems likely that whatever the meter thinks, DCC takes the first/lowest tier/register as the one for peak usage, even though the meter thinks the opposite. 

There’s a lot of information to be gleaned from the online account pages, if they’re being updated. It’s likely that there won’t be any billing data; this will probably have been put on hold until the meter people have worked out what’s happening. But half-hourly usage data and daily readings should give clues to what is being recorded on the peak/off-peak registers. These are separate, largely unconnected, data sets, although you’d expect the daily figures for the various time slots to add up to something quite close to the differences between daily peak/off-peak readings. It looks like Jessica is seeing some half-hourly data; what about Mike? And can you see the reading history?

Thanks for the swift reply Firedog….I will take two more pictures after the rate changes, making sure to display the name of the rate. To be continued……

On my online account I have got readings from the day I switched - but only 1 per day

My (not very scientific) calculations suggest that what they show as “Off-Peak” is a pretty constant 5.5 to 6 units a day

“Peak“ readings show a pretty constant 3.5 to 4 units a day EXCEPT on days when I do a load test when it jumps to 8.5 to 9

By my expectations this is reversed. My peak usage is indeed pretty constant : I work from home so its mainly my domestic items plus 2 PCs and a printer. Its my off-peak usage that should be varying as I switch the immersion switch on and off on certain nights to conduct load tests

As I said before, its probably not affecting me that greatly at the moment as Im effectively getting Economy 14, but come the winter……

Let me know if you want any other pics in crappy quality lol

….and thanks once again 👍